Staycation

The second image by Cheryl Jenkins underlines the thin veneer of the brand of the British seaside. While Butlins opens a £20m hotel in Bognor Regis and the Midland Hotel in Morecambe is returned to its Art Deco splendour woe betide those who take a stroll outside the confines of their accomodation.

Mind you, £1.50 for a jug of tea is a real bargain. Come on you American tourists - buy in to a piece of the brand that is old England. A real English tea room.

Had the government thought it through it would have subsidised holidays on bargain airlines to warm places where chilled beer is available to the recession-hit British public instead of suggesting hot BBQ weather and stay-at-home vacations. A staycation tonic to the nation bolstered by the belief that HM Government is looking after us by stockpiling Tamiflu simply has not worked.

The first image is what one experiences at the height of the summer season in Saltburn by the Sea in Cleveland. Empty beaches, a wet day and very little else in the way of fun (although the machines in the arcade for taking huge numbers of twopenny pieces from us were a bit of light relief, as was the Funicular railway up to the town, twinned with any desolate Eastern European town that you can imagine). That evening we stayed inn over-priced 4-star country inn and had the experience of sending back an entire meal for the first time in our lives!

The brand of Britain that is mass tourism sits firmly in the cities where galleries, cafés that are open and serve edible food, hotels etc exist! There is a long way to go before we can compete. We venture in search of £1.50 jugs of tea in the belief that we should do for the good of the country